1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system and in particular to a method and apparatus for processing design data. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for generating a model-based definition containing fasteners used to couple components.
2. Background Description
The design of aerospace vehicles involves using computer aided design (CAD) environments to generate product definitions for vehicles, such as aircraft and space vehicles. A product definition contains one or more parts and/or assemblies that are represented in electronic form. A product definition may be stored in a single electronic file or be spread across multiple electronic files. The electronic files generated by computer aided design systems are technical drawings of one or more components using a computer. In designing vehicles and components for these vehicles, the designs are moving towards using three dimensional model-based definition (MBD). Model-based definition is a new trend for creating three dimensional product definitions using computer aided design.
In current designs without model-based definition, all three dimensional computer aided design product definitions have an accompanying two dimensional drawing. This two dimensional drawing is used to show specific information about the three dimensional product definition, such as dimensions and tolerances, and provide annotations. This information is meant to convey engineering intent (EI), which communicates the designer's intention for how a product should be fabricated, assembled, operated and maintained, to the personnel who will fabricate, assemble, operate, and maintain the product. The three dimensional product definition does not show these types of details.
As a result, duplication of effort and contradictions between the original three dimensional product definition and the two dimensional derivative may occur. With model-based definition, engineering intent, such as dimensions, annotations, and other associated information, is directly inserted into the three dimensional product definition, eliminating the need for additional drawings.
With a model-based approach to computer aided design, tools and processes are required to efficiently generate product definitions and capture the engineering intent for the different designs. In addition, different design tasks often manage project data in different ways and have different requirements for the use of standard parts, such as fasteners.
Current computer aided design systems provide capabilities for construction of detailed parts and assemblies. However, the specification of large amounts of fastener hardware in these three dimensional designs is a labor intensive process and provides a potential source of modeling error.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have an improved fastener placement tool in which productivity is increased and errors are decreased.